desert fathers

The Sayings of the DesertFathers is a collection of sayings from the Egyptian and later Syrian deserts dating to around the 4th century a.d. - 7th or 8th. There are several versions of the collection and even organized differently, by theme, alphabetically by author, etc. (I suppose that in the days before copyrightlawyers, such things could happen much more organically and easily!) Interestingly, the period during which the Sayings take place corresponds roughly to the adoption of Christianity by the Roman Emperor, making it the state religion. Many of these desert ascetics fled from Rome and the looming "bureaucratization" of the Christian spiritual traditions as the Church was being co-opted by the Empire. I first read The Sayings in the early 90's and was immediately struck by the Eastern, Zen-like quality of the sayings. Here are a few, just for kicks:

There were two old men who dwelt together for many years and who never quarreled.